Winter In The Heart

Delusion: noun:the act of deluding; deception by creating illusory ideas;
noun:(psychology) an erroneous belief that is held in the face of evidence to the contrary.



The first time any country gets real power,it is abused. Like Rome, China, Mongolia, Britain, France, Germany, and Russia, so with the United States. Empires rise, empires fall. And the United States appears to be on a downward spiral. Perhaps my assessment is wrong about the U.S empire's current decline, however, at some point, like all empires that preceded it, it will run out of gas and another power will rise to continue this sickening cycle of power, wealth, wars, corruption and an assortment of grand delusions to mask it all/fool us all.

Why are human societies so tragically flawed? Why haven't our so-called leaders learned anything from the past? In the 30,000 years or so since the blossoming of modern human beings, we've been at each other's throats for one reason or another (land, water, oil, women, geopolitics, religion,.....). And of course, everyone/every nation (in the modern era) feels justified/finds justification in this blood-letting by mouthing off a plethora of diversionary yet stunning array of high-sounding principles (regurgitations)--"national security", "protection of the homeland", "survival/self-preservation", "protection of our interests", "high values", "civilization at stake", and, the supreme principle, "peace" . George Orwell's dystopic term, "double-speak" comes to mind here.

If we dissect the tragedies that have been carried out in our names, we may be able to get a glimpse of some essential truths underlying the forces that feed this drive to conquer and, perhaps, if one must hope, make this Earth a safer home for our children in the long run. George Orwell once wrote, " War is a way of shattering to pieces, or pouring into the stratosphere, or sinking in the depths of the sea, materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable, and hence, in the long run, too intelligent. " We have to see through the blindfolds, re-examine what undergirds our patriotism and reclaim our rights to be fully informed & engaged citizens of our global community (by implication, challenging nationalism/nation-state which I will take up at a later time). Must we be forever slaves to our drives and to the dictates of our leaders who claim to have our best interests at heart?

Check out this Flash Presentation: Hope & Memory

To all the warmongers in our midst, from Bush to Mugabe to Hu Jintao: Hell hath no fury like a non-combatant (a C.L. Montague quote). Indeed, enemies will multiply if we continue to be this way as darkness cannot be fought with darkness--only the light of love and understanding can do that.

peace

::MixMasterE::